The sanctions came after Francesca Albanese sent threatening letters to prominent American corporations, warning them to cut ties with the Jewish state or face ‘criminal liability’
The Trump administration on Wednesday formally sanctioned United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese “for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt International Criminal Court action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced.
“Albanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries,” Rubio said in a statement. “Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.”
The U.N. reappointed Albanese—a vocal Israel critic who blamed the Jewish state for Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror spree and compared Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler—to her role as Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories earlier this year against the Trump administration’s wishes. The sanctions come in response to a July report from Albanese on international companies that allegedly contribute to Israel’s “human rights violations and international crimes” through their business activities within the Jewish state.
The Trump administration privately urged U.N. leadership to fire Albanese in late June, citing her “virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism” as well as her misrepresentation of her legal qualifications, the Washington Free Beacon first reported.
The request came after Albanese sent “threatening letters” to companies around the globe, warning them to cut business ties with Israel or face “potential criminal liability.” Those missives, the administration said, were “riddled with inflammatory rhetoric” and delivered to some of the “most prominent American corporations” in a variety of industries.
“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” Rubio’s statement continued. “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
Albanese’s campaign culminated earlier this month in an official U.N. report accusing Israel of fostering an “economy of genocide.”
The Trump administration maintains that Albanese’s work is filled with “fundamental legal errors” and remains “baseless under established international law.”
The administration also informed the U.N. that Albanese may have lied about her credentials, claiming to be “an international lawyer” even though “she has not passed a legal bar examination or been licensed to practice law.” This behavior, the United States maintained, disqualifies Albanese from receiving diplomatic immunity and should result in her firing.
“The lack of such action to date has enabled Ms. Albanese to pursue her campaign of economic warfare targeting entities across the world, including major American companies,” acting U.S. representative to the U.N. Dorothy Shea wrote. “Continued failure to do so would not only discredit the United Nations, but would also require significant actions in response to her misconduct.”
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